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Product FAQs

Troubleshooting

Why is my 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound not working from the digital (S/PDIF) output?

The audio format of your source media may be uncompressed (lossless). Uncompressed surround sound audio is not supported by digital (S/PDIF) connections due to bandwidth limitations. When your lossless 5.1 or 7.1 audio content is sent through the Digital S/PDIF connection, data will be lost which can result in limited 2-channel audio playback.

This issue is not an isolated limitation of this StarTech.com audio adapter, as uncompressed surround sound is universally incompatible with digital (S/PDIF) audio.

Digital (S/PDIF) audio supports:

2-channel PCM audio

Compressed surround sound audio (Dolby Digital, DD+, DTS, DTS-ES)

Digital (S/PDIF) audio does NOT support:

More than 2-channels of PCM audio

Uncompressed surround sound audio (DD-TrueHD, DTS-Master Audio)

Playback of digital surround sound is dependent on a variety of factors, including the audio format of your source media, your playback software, and your audio receiver. Digital (S/PDIF) channel settings are managed by the source and playback devices, and cannot be manually configured like analog audio.